Hello I have an 8 month old Basset Hound puppy named Fred who is a precious little boy but he is not yet house broken. We found out Friday we are 4 months pregnant. Talk about surprises. The need for him to be house broken has suddenly escalated. He must be house broken before baby arrives! I know he will still have accidents and I am very patient, but I cannot be cleaning up constant potty messes after two little munchkins! He just cannot seem to hold it. When he is in his crate he can hold it just fine but when he is in the house he just does not seem to understand that he needs to just hold it. I can seriously be pulling him out the door and he will pee right in front of the door. When i take him out of his crate all I have to say is "Go potty" and he marches straight for the door, pees outside and then comes back. But when he is inside with us he seems to have no self control. Please help! Any help is appreciated. Thanks

I'm having the same problem with Mr Darcy at the minute, he's terrible with his peeing - poos he seems to understand are for outside, still get the occasional accident but he's not pooing indoors half as much these days. Really cannot say the same for pee though - my goodness! He never stops!

I have a 10 month and 1 year old. I found they still need to go out every hour when we are home. I do not wait for them to ask. Way back when we started with every 15 minutes and have worked our way up. If they are napping or playing I leave them be. But as soon as they get up or calm down out we go. It has worked for me. I don't have to go outside with them anymore they know what to do.

House training or potty training as many call it, is a question that appears frequently. If you use the search tab above the advertisements & use the phrase 'potty training', it will show numerous threads on the subject. Please have patience, new owners appear to have very high expectations, yes there should be gradual improvement but even experienced owners will say it can occasionally take 12 months. Good luck.

I think the expectations come from people that have found it easier than basset owners to house train their dog.
I kid you not - a woman came into work the other day with a basket of 8 week old puppies and she says "they're all house trained as well!" - I could have wept!
Everyone I seem to mention it to, that Mr D isn't potty trained yet seem to attack you with "are you doing this, are you doing that/you should be doing this, you should be doing that". I will admit I was worried that he wasn't learning at all, but I can see gradual improvements that are occurring now at nearly 6 months old. He seems to be understanding that he WILL be taken out frequently and be rewarded and that he doesn't have to pee in the house, where he will get no reward!

I think you are fairly close-- congrats on the baby coming and i bet that if you work at this, you will be able to get your basset pottytrained before the baby comes. you've done well with the crate and with having him trained to go right when he gets let out with the crate. so yeah, i think you are close, just needs a little more work.

what i suggest is a large investment of time upfront now with your basset. agree with what everyone has said. but it becomes very important to follow your basset around (never let it out of your sight, and if you can't he goes in the crate). every step. so you see what he's doing. as soon as you see him STARTING to pee, take him outside. lift him up if you can or at the very least interrupt him by saying something. this is very valuable training for him, esp if he finishes his pee outside in the right spot.

always remember the spots that he went before, as he is more likely to go there again. so when he is walking by, take a good look underneath, to make sure he is not peeing (those basset puppies are so low to the ground, it is often difficult to tell). the more accidents he has, the more reinforcing it is to go indoors. however, the fewer accidents he has, the more he is going outside.

oh and like the others have said-- measure the amount of time from when you last took him out to his accident. if it's 1 1/2 hrs for example, then you will need to take him out sooner than that, at the 1 hr 15 min mark. whatever it is currently and he has an accident, it's apparently too long. the other thing is what is meant by 'taking him out,' that usually does not just mean letting him out to the backyard to roam free. as sometimes bassets take that as playtime and do things they like to do (sniff, dig) instead of peeing. i actually think the best thing to do, esp with a boy basset, is hook him up to his leash, take him out the front door and walk him down your street, even just past 3-4 houses. as a boy, he will enjoy marking, sniffing where other dogs have peed, and what's in it for you, is that he will be enjoying emptying his bladder. if he empties it well, you may find that he can go longer without peeing, which is then good for you!

it sounds like a lot of work up front, but once it starts to work, it will take less and less time. for Worm it took me 1 1/2 months total of being very devoted like this. last year at 1 1/2 we moved to a house and he never peed in it (knock on wood). he's hardly in his crate these days, and I know i can trust him to not pee in the house. i really don't have to keep an eye on him anymore the way i did during the housetraining period.

i found the bell really helpful. take a look at Mikey's links. it took Worm 1 month to learn to use it, but it sounds like is in on the slow end of the curve, as most bassets here learned to use it within a week or two, some even in days.

Video of Worm ringing his bell (it can get slightly annoying lol, but it works for us because he rings the bell and then waits fairly patiently at the door until we let him out [instead of peeing in the house])